Look sharply and you will see opportunity; for though she is blind, she’s not invisible.
–Francis Bacon

Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.
–Samuel Johnson

Popularity: 2% [?]

You must act as if it is impossible to fail.
–Ashanti proverb

I always knew that one day I would take this road, but yesterday I didn’t know that today would be the day.
–Nagarjuna

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing.
–Abraham Lincoln

What you think of yourself is much more important than what others think of you.
–Seneca

Interviewer (Barbara Walters):  Are you ever afraid of anything?
Cher:  I’m afraid that I won’t live as well as I know how.

You’ve got to take the initiative and play your game . . . confidence makes the difference.
–Chris Evert

They can because they think they can.
–Virgil

Nurture your mind with great thoughts; heroes are made by believing.
–Benjamin Disraeli

Do not follow the path.  Go where there is no path and begin the trail.
–Ashanti proverb

What doesn’t kill you will make you stronger.
–Nietzsche

The barriers to success simply do not exist in the real world—it is composed purely and simply of doubts about one’s ability.  If you think it can be done and you commit yourself irrevocably to making it happen—it will.  Easily, no.  Nothing of value comes from picking four-leaf clovers or wishing.  It comes from belief, commitment, courage, and the will to never give up regardless of the pain, sacrifice, and interim failures.
–Nicholas St. George

A man in armor is his armor’s slave.
–Robert Browning

I have been and still am a seeker, but I have ceased to question stars and books; I have begun to listen to the teachings my blood whispers to me.
–Hermann Hesse

Popularity: 2% [?]

Eighty percent of success is just showing up.  [PDF]
–Woody Allen

Well begun is half done.  [PDF]
–Aristotle

Be bold—and mighty forces will come to your aid.  [PDF]
–Basil King

Popularity: 2% [?]

I’ve created a series of free downloadable motivational posters.

Feel free to download and print them as you like, pass ‘em around, use ‘em for darts, or maybe . . . take a look at them from time to time and ponder.

Go to the following links and, when you see a [PDF] symbol, this means that this quote has been made into a downloadable poster.

Right-click on the [PDF] symbol and save the poster to a folder on your PC; then print as you normally would.

Left-click on the [PDF] symbol and you’ll open the poster in a new window and you can print from there.  (With this method, you won’t have saved the file, though.)

PDF is a universal document format that works on virtually any computer, but you may also need the Adobe Acrobat Reader program.  Most computers have Reader installed (PDF files are pretty standard creatures) — if you don’t, you can get a free copy from the Intellectua.com site. 

The Motivational Posters can be found here (click on any/all of the below):

Never Give Up (Success-O-Matic Step 1)

You Become What You Think You Can Become (Success-O-Matic Step 2)

Keep The Right Attitude (Success-O-Matic Step 3)

Take Some Chances (Success-O-Matic Step 4)

Make Decisions (Success-O-Matic Step 5)

Holler if questions.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.  [PDF]
–Peter Drucker

Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.
–Napoleon Bonaparte

Knowing is not enough; we must apply.  Willing is not enough; we must do.
–Goethe

It is not the critic who counts, nor the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done better.  The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.
–Theodore Roosevelt

Action is eloquence. [PDF]
–Shakespeare

Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it.  Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.  [PDF]
–Goethe

A life of reaction is a life of slavery, intellectually and spiritually.  One must fight for a life of action, not reaction.  [PDF]
–Rita Mae Brown

When you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t, do.  [PDF]
–Stewart Brand

Face adversity promptly and without flinching, and you will reduce its impact. Never run from anything, and never, ever quit.
–Winston Churchill

One who fears limits his activities.  Failure is only the opportunity to more intelligently begin again.
–Henry Ford

It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, “Always do what you are afraid to do.”
–Emerson

Be bold.  If you’re going to make an error, make a doozy, and don’t be afraid to hit the ball.
–Billie Jean King

To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.
–Bertrand Russell

Fear takes our freedom away and makes us victims of the powers that surround us.  Fear reveals how deeply our sense of worth has become dependent on our success in the world and on the opinions of others, and how we have become what we do or what others think of us.
–Henri J. M. Nouwen

Everyone should know that feeling of overcoming fear and mastering something.  People who aren’t taught that become soggy.  [PDF]
–Katherine Hepburn

First say to yourself what you would be; then do what you have to do.
–Epictetus

When one door closes, another opens, but we often look so long and regretfully upon the closed door, we do not see the ones which open for us.
–Alexander G. Bell

The beginning is the most important part of the work.
–Plato

Popularity: 2% [?]

Grade:  Top5er

[Please make sure to check out my Book Review Guidelines for what I look for in a book and how I evaluate same.]

Let me start off this review like this:  If you’re even faintly interested in success books, skip this review and go buy 50 Success Classics today — or grab it from your library or steal it from a friend.

It’s that good and it’s that vital for your path.

Tom Butler-Bowden has written a book called 50 Success Classics, and it — in and of itself — is a classic in my book.

TBB has studied the best of the best in the success literature genre.  This quest must have taken him a couple of years, at least, and it’s evident.  He knows the field, and he’s organized his book around four sub-categories within the success genre:

• Motivation
• Fulfilling your potential
• Prosperity
• Leadership

Within the Motivation category, Butler-Bowden profiles 14 classics, including:

1. Frank Bettger’s How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling.
2. Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
3. Anthony Robbins’ Unlimited Power.
4. Zig Ziglar’s See You at the Top.

From the Potential group, TBB includes these from among 12 covered:

1. Cheryl Richardson’s Take Time for Your Life.
2. Richard Wiseman’s The Luck Factor.

In the Prosperity category, Butler-Bowden covers the following among his 10 selections:

1. Russell Conwell’s Acres of Diamonds.
2. Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich.
3. Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad, Poor Dad.

And, in the leadership group, TBB includes the following among the 14 selections:

1. Roger Lowenstein’s Buffett.
2. Michael Dell’s Direct from Dell.
3. Nelson Mandela’s Long Walk to Freedom.

What’s most impressive is that it’s clear early on that Butler-Bowdon hasn’t skimmed these books; he’s studied and reflected on them.  I checked him, you see, by reviewing his comments about the classics that I’ve studied and know rather well, and TBB has nailed ‘em.

For each selection, Butler-Bowdon includes short selections (quotes), a very brief “in a nutshell” one-two sentence summary of each book’s chief point, and a three-four page overview of the book.

I find it amazing that he’s been able to review so much in the success field and to be able to summarize his research so succinctly and well.

Butler-Bowdon is also the author of 50 Self-Help Classics and 50 Spiritual Classics, and I look forward to reviewing them both in the coming weeks.

50 Success Classics is available from the Dream Jobs Dialog Bookshop.

So, check it out . . . this jewel is top drawer.

Popularity: 7% [?]

You’ll always miss 100 percent of the balls you never swing at.
–Author Unknown

Dare!  And dare again.  And go on daring.  [PDF]
–Georges J. Danton

Come to the edge.
No we will fall.
Come to the edge.
No we will fall.
So they came to the edge.
And he pushed them.
And they flew.  [PDF]
–Author unknown

Unless one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness.  Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth (the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans).  That is the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too.  All sorts of things occur to help one that would have never otherwise occurred.  A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meeting and material assistance which no person could have dreamed would have come his way.  Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it.  Boldness has genius, power, and magic to it.  Begin it now.  [PDF]
–Jonathan Goethe

During the first period of a man’s life the greatest danger is:  not to take the risk.
–Soren Kierkegaard

You’ve got to know when to stop going in little bits and save yourself up and make a big jump.
–Dale Evans

Every artist was first an amateur.
–Emerson

We can do anything we want to do if we stick to it long enough.
–Helen Keller

One doesn’t discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.  [PDF]
–Andre Gide

The moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves, too.  All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred.
–W.H. Murray

An entrepreneur is a guy who is personally guaranteeing $5 million and has about five bucks in his pocket.  [PDF]
–Rick Inatome

It’s never too late in fiction or in life—to revise.  [PDF]
Nancy Thayer

Popularity: 4% [?]

The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.  Attitude, to me, is more important than facts.  It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do.  It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill.  It will make or break a company, a church, a home.  The remarkable think is that we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we embrace for that day.  We cannot change our past, we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way.  We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the string we have, and that is our attitude.  I’m convinced that life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 percent how I react to it.  And so it is with you . . . we are in charge of our attitude.  [PDF]
–Charles Swindol

Your attitude about who you are and what you have is a very little thing that makes a very big difference.
–Theodore Roosevelt

When one door closes, another opens, but we often look so long and regretfully upon the closed door, we do not see the ones which open for us.
–Alexander G. Bell

I don’t want people who want to dance.  I want people who have to dance.  [PDF]
–George Balanchine

People can alter their lives by altering their attitudes.
–William James

Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right.  [PDF]
–Henry Ford

Hire for attitude, train for skills.
–Michael Werner (technically, author unknown)

What a man thinks of himself, that is which determines, or rather indicates, his fate.
–Thoreau

A negative perspective limits self-confidence and the ability to take necessary risks.  If you focus hard enough on why something won’t work, chances are it won’t.
–John M. Capozzi

No person who is enthusiastic about his work has anything to fear from life.
–Author Unknown

Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.  [PDF]
–Abraham Lincoln

If your life is anything less than your wildest dreams, you’re being shortchanged.
–Label on a box of Celestial Seasonings tea bags

The things we know best are the things we haven’t been taught.
–Vauve Nargues

Just ask yourself that utterly simple question:  What do I want to be doing?  And stop ignoring the answer.  [PDF]
–Richard Bach

Imagination is more important than knowledge.
–Albert Einstein

Sometimes you need to look reality in the eye, and deny it.  [PDF]
–Garrison Keillor

Popularity: 2% [?]

We become what we think about.  [PDF]
–Earl Nightingale

In the long run, we only hit what we aim at.
–Thoreau

The mask, given time, comes to be the face itself.  [PDF]
–Marguerite Yourcenar

The universe is transformation—our life is what our thoughts make it.  [PDF]
–Marcus Aurelius

We write our own destiny.  We become what we do.  [PDF]
–Madam Chiang Kai-Shek

The future belongs to those who prepare for it.
–Emerson

Success nourishes them.  They can because they think they can.
–Vergil

We are what we believe we are.
–Benjamin Cardozo

A man is what he thinks about all day.
–Emerson

I pretended to be somebody I wanted to be, and I finally became that person.  Or he became me.  Or we met at some point.  [PDF]
–Cary Grant

High expectations are the key to everything.
–Sam Walton

If you think you are beaten, you are;
 If you think you dare not, you don’t;
If you’d like to win, but think you can’t,
 It’s almost a cinch you won’t
If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost,
 For out in the world we find
Success begins with a fellow’s will;
 It’s all in the state of the mind.

If you think you’re outclassed, you are;
 You’ve got to think high to rise.
You’ve got to be sure of yourself before
 You can ever win a prize.
Life’s battles don’t always go
 To the stronger or faster man;
But soon or late the man who wins
 Is the man who thinks he can.  [PDF]
–Walter D. Wintle

Popularity: 4% [?]

A few days ago, I introduced you to Lois Prinz and her ideas about bringing abundance into your life.  Click here for that article.

Here’s more from Lois on Creating an Abundant Life. 

===================================

Years ago, Emil Coue, a French pharmacist and hypnotist created a phenomenal phrase to attract positive energy into the lives of his clients.  His phrase still works to this day: ”Every day in every way I’m getting better and better.”

That’s it!  That’s all there is to this miraculous phrase.  However, repeating this phrase just before entering into sleep-state can create positively wonderful changes in attracting abundance of all forms into your life.

It is absolutely true that prosperity is much more than how much money you make.  Many people may be rich with money and material assets, yet poor and impoverished in the things that really matter most.  So, this would be the perfect time and your opportunity to recognize and appreciate all the prosperity that surrounds you.  Appreciate it.  Be grateful for everything you attract, every day, all of the time.

Then, there are those people who think that to be a spiritual person, you have to be poor.  Truth is, there is no separation between spirit and money.  That’s right.  Money comes to you when you are ready to grow and achieve more of your own potential.  If you think having money makes you better than others, then your money is likely to create only heartache.  And if you think about it, money can actually enhance your personal sense of spirituality.  Honor what you have rightfully earned.  Bless your money.  Be grateful and joyous for having what you have and everything will be right in your life.

With this information every person on this planet has the potential to create unlimited wealth.  It’s been said that if all the money on earth were divided equally between every man, woman and child on earth, we would all be millionaires!  Innately, you have a source within you to ask for and receive everything you desire.  But, you have to ask!  You must bring the expectancy of receiving that which you desire.

Your subconscious mind has programmed for how much money you approve to accept.  Just tell it what you want to have happen, and it will happen.  You may find this concept hard to understand and accept at first; however, the power within you to create what you want is unlimited.  With an old mind-set that places you in fear, scarcity or lack, you will continue to live far below your abundance potential.  Change that negative old mindset now!

First, ask yourself, what do you want?  What do you want to become?  What is it that you want to do with you life?  Take control of your thoughts, and step out of the poverty consciousness that you and you alone have created.  Your life is more than a series of unrelated circumstances or sets of conditions.  You make yourself who you are.  Your quality of life is determined by you through your own intentional choices to be happy.

So, change your old negative ways of thinking along with a new alignment in energies of abundance, self-trust, and happiness; flowing, rich energies aligning with prosperity consciousness instead of scarcity consciousness.

Give yourself the permission to live every moment of your life in the thought of abundance.  Just know and believe that you can create it and you likely will, you’ll see.  You are an awesome being who deserves only the best life has to offer.  Believe this, and you’ll live your best life attracting the abundance you truly desire and deserve.

Gary Quinn, author of Living in the Spiritual Zone, provides us with helpful affirmations to stay in “top abundance shape.”  Use them every day until they become integrated within your own belief system:

• I believe everything is possible
• Life is abundance and a celebration
• I can change my reality
• There is always enough of everything
• I trust that abundance is within me
• I am a money magnet

Lois Prinz is a Certified Hypnotherapist and Designated Trainer and Examiner for the National Guild of Hypnotists.  Lois also practices the Thought Field Therapies of Neurolinguistic Psychology and Emotional Self Management with EFT in her business, Center for Hypnosis.

She is the founder and director of National Hypnotherapy Training Center in Albuquerque, NM.

Popularity: 2% [?]